It must be tattooed on my forehead.
Today I received a phone call at work.
"Sherry, remember me? My name is Mary and you rescued an Eagle at our house two years ago."
"Yes, of course Mary I remember you. How are you?"
"Well, not so good. We found our neighbor dead in his house the other day. He had five ducks that we don't know what to do with that were his dear pets...he raised them as ducklings in his house."
"Ummm...are they Mallards?" (She called me at work so I thought MAYBE this was work related)
"No, they are white ducks".
Shit.
"Let me call Will...."
Three Pekins and two Indian Runner Ducks. Males? Females? They make softly quacking noises and some have curly tails. We'll figure this out as we go I guess....
(the "internet" says vent sexing is only for experts, and I have to admit that most of the wild ducks I have vent sexed were dead...so maybe I'm not really an expert?! I think I'm too old for an identity crisis.)
Their wooden house is on blocks and filled with clean straw in the chicken yard. We put up a box shelter behind their house blocking the north wind. They have cracked corn and a three gallon pan of water and are probably wondering where Bob is.
I hope we can live up to their expectations, because I think Bob treated them like royalty.
(the kids are thrilled!)
How sweet :o) and a bit sad :o(. They are so cute! I wish it were snowing here.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad...I'm glad we can give them a home...poor man. Evidently they gave him a great deal of joy.
ReplyDeleteWe animals lovers just can't help ourselves. You did a good thing for Bob and for his ducks. Surely he must be smiling at you from heaven.
ReplyDeleteducks!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletethose indian runners are not indian runners!..... they look like a hybrid to me, but are pretty nevertheless!!!
females QUACK loudly
drakes "chunner" softly and tend to have curly tails....
if you have more than two males you may have problems in the spring
as the drakes will swamp the females!
ideally you need 2 males to 4-5 females
good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Indian runners were a guess based on picture keying (which I KNOW shouldn't be done!); I couldn't find anything else close but they certainly aren't upright enough...thank you for your opinion!
Deletethis is their second winter and they currently all seem to get along just fine and no one looks. ahem. over used. I'm wondering if they are all males because they seem to have quiet duck voices and I'm pretty sure they all but possibly one have that curly tail, though it seems a bit subjective to me at this point! i will strive to take duck bum photos. i love them already!
Yes, but suckers are so sweet.
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ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure you got 2 Indian runners and 3 Peking. They are so sweet.
ReplyDeleteThey are sweet! They make me smile.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure they are all drakes after doing some non-intrusive bum checking. Those little curled tails are cute.
Hi there, just found your blog and I'm loving it. Came to you by way of John's Going Gently blog- totally agreed with your comment regarding beanie hats and the sexiness of The Edge so had to drop in.
ReplyDeleteJust started the blogging thing myself and would love a visitor- stop by sometime!